New Delhi: Finance professional Ajay Goel quit BYJU’s and returned to Vedanta Ltd as the new chief financial officer as the Anil Agarwal-controlled mining conglomerate heads into an ambitious business restructuring. Goel had quit from Vedanta earlier this year to join education startup BYJU's. He replaced Sonal Shrivastava who resigned from the post months after joining. Vedanta said in a stock exchange filing that Goel has been appointed CFO of the company with effect from October 30, 2023. "As part of Vedanta's structured re-hiring programme called 'Gharwapsi', Mr. Ajay Goel joins back the company," it said.
Vedanta said Shrivastava resigned as the CFO with effect from the close of business hours on October 24 "due to personal reasons”.
"Goel is a national rank holder both as a Chartered Accountant and Company Secretary and comes with rich experience in global multinational companies such as General Electric, Nestle, Coca Cola and Diageo – USL in various leadership roles," it said.
Goel was earlier associated with Vedanta as acting CFO of the company between October 23, 2021 and April 9, 2023.
"During his earlier role at Vedanta, Ajay contributed significantly in terms of driving business performance, managing the financial affairs of the company and heading the finance function with his leadership acumen. He was also instrumental in successfully handling regulatory approvals, investments matters, capital allocation, investor relations and major M&A-related affairs," Vedanta said.
Byju’s reacts
Byju's said it has made new appointments in its finance function, with Pradip Kanakia as senior adviser and Nitin Golani, currently the President-Finance, who will take charge as India CFO.
Vedanta last month announced a plan to split itself into six listed companies to improve valuations and attract investors.
"By demerging our business units, we believe that will unlock value and potential for faster growth in each vertical. While they all come under the larger umbrella of natural resources, each has its own market, demand and supply trends, and potential to deploy technology to raise productivity," Agarwal, Chairman of Vedanta, had said at that time.
The six planned companies will be - Vedanta Aluminium, Vedanta Oil & Gas, Vedanta Power, Vedanta Steel and Ferrous Materials, Vedanta Base Metals and Vedanta Limited.
Goel quit as Byju's chief financial officer (CFO) barely six months after joining the ed tech.
(With PTI inputs)
